Phoenix has a well-deserved
reputation for being one of the hottest cities in the United States.
With temperatures that routinely spike above 100°F (37.8°C), this
Arizona city has the highest average daily maximum air temperatures of any in the country. But that’s not to say the land surface temperatures in this sun-drenched city are universally hot. (Read this story
for an explanation of how land surface temperatures and air
temperatures differ.) Variations in surface temperatures are not visible
in the natural-color image above (top), but they are the predominant
feature of the thermal infrared image (bottom). The thermal image, based
on data collected by the Thermal Infrared Sensor
(TIRS), shows how much heat was radiating from various parts of the
surface. Cooler areas appear darker; warmer areas are brighter.Both images were acquired by the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, an Earth-observing satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base
in February 2013. Buildings, roads, and other urban infrastructure
appear gray in the natural-color image. The Phoenix metropolitan area
has grown rapidly
over the past decade, bringing development into parched landscapes of
the Sonoran Desert. The city is now home to more than 1.4 million
people, making it the sixth largest in the United States.Supporting such a large population in an area that receives just 8 inches (200 mm)
of rain per year requires careful management of water resources. Some
key parts of the water distribution system are visible in the natural
color image. Theodore Roosevelt Lake
and a series of lakes are in the upper corner of the image. These link
to the Salt River, a critical conduit for irrigation and human
consumption. In the lower part of the image, an area dense with
agricultural fields offers a vivid example of how irrigation can create
an oasis of green in the midst of the desert.As seen in the thermal image, the presence of water has a strong
impact on land surface temperatures. Bodies of standing water are some
of the coolest parts of the image. Likewise, the most heavily vegetated
and irrigated areas are cooler than the surrounding landscape because
water evaporating from the soil and transpiring from plant leaves
absorbs energy that would otherwise go into warming the surface. The
lack of vegetation in bare fields leaves those areas warm, while the
upper parts of the Mazatzal Mountains are cool and moist enough to
support
forests.One of the main reasons the TIRS instrument was flown on LDCM was
because thermal measurements on predecessor instruments made it
possible to calculate evapotranspiration rates, a key measure that water managers use to gauge how quickly a given area of land is losing water to the atmosphere.Note that these images are considered engineering data—data that is
helping scientists and engineers ensure that the satellite and its
instruments are operating as designed. Once LDCM completes its check-out
period and becomes fully operational for science, NASA will pass
control of the satellite to the U.S. Geological Survey and LDCM will be
re-named Landsat 8.Read more about LDCM’s birthplaces—the locations in the United States
where Landsat missions have been conceived, built, and controlled—by clicking here.